


Two Paths, One Road

by lizbetann



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-29
Updated: 2007-06-29
Packaged: 2017-10-09 06:39:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/84149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizbetann/pseuds/lizbetann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ianto's getting pulled in two different directions. Or, rather, dimensions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Paths, One Road

It wasn't terribly rare for Jack and Ianto to be the only ones left in the Hub at odd hours. Gwen stayed until her boyfriend rung her mobile or Jack shoved her out the door. Owen usually was out on whatever prowl he could find, endlessly poking in various corners for whatever it was he was looking for and never found. Tosh could spend thirty-six hours straight hunched over her computer, or disappear at half three with a "La!" over her shoulder.

If Ianto had his choice, he'd want the place empty, to himself, if for no other reason than the presence of the others was a weight. Not an unbearable one, but rather like feeling to restricted in your clothes, and wanting to tear them off and wander around naked. Ianto snorted. Not that he wanted to strip off in here. Too bloody cold.

"Something wrong, Ianto?" Jack was above, on the balcony surrounding the glassed office and conference room that made it very difficult to have secret plots. Or secret assignations. Or secrets at all.

"Nothing, sir. Just a bit of dust, I think."

The lack of privacy had been hell, the months he'd been sheltering Lisa. Trying to keep her alive, keep her going. He'd had to slip away when no one was watching. Not that the rest of them had paid much attention, but after everything, Ianto wondered if he had ever fooled Jack for a single moment.

"Dust? I don't believe that you'd allow a speck of it in here."

Now he wanted the solace of solitude. While scarcely being able to bear being alone with his own thoughts. He was severed from his past, and had no concept of his future. The rational part of him knew that Jack had been right about Lisa, about what Lisa had become. The animalistic part wanted to see Jack suffer and die, to comprehend the smallest part of his pain.

"Dust is an unwelcome but inevitable visitor, sir." Ianto didn't look up from where he was drying the tea things, ready to put them neatly away for the morning. His mouth kept going, idly. "You know, they say that some significant percentage of dust is tiny meteorites, what's left after larger ones failed to reach ground."

Jack laughed. Ianto knew, if he looked up, he'd see him standing there, above him, thumbs tucked into his belt, limbs loose. Jack was a presence, a pressure that filled the Hub full.

"Millions upon millions of alien visitations per day," Jack agreed.

"And most of the world simply hoovers them up." Ianto put the last cup away. Unable to think of any other reason for to stall, he headed for the door and the lobby of reception.

But he paused after a few steps, his head turned. "What's that?"

"What's what?"

Ianto turned on his heel, eyes unfocused, trying to pick up on the source of the sound. It was a faint, sweet chiming, like a mantel clock calling the hour, but it didn't stop.

It grew louder. And still Ianto couldn't trace the source. He prowled around the lower level, but no matter which direction he went, it only kept growing louder. "Can't you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Jack's voice had changed from lazy to focused, and he started down the stairs.

The sweetness of the chime had become shrill as it gained in volume, until it finally began hurting. Ianto put his hand over his ears to block it out, but it did nothing to help.

Jack reached his side and pulled down his hands. He was talking to him, Ianto could see his lips moving, see him forming "what" over and over again, but he couldn't hear a thing and the noise kept growing and he thought his head would split.

The noise chased him even into darkness.

When he woke, he was lying on the floor, Owen was kneeling over him and the sound was gone. "You're awake. Taking a little nap at work, are we? I suppose you don't need a doctor, then."

"Owen," Gwen said, exasperated, as Owen rose and sauntered away. ~Diafol~, had Jack called all them in because he'd passed out? Gwen helped Ianto to his feet. "Whatever happened?"

"There was this noise," Ianto started to explain, but stopped when another woman reached him. She flung her arms around him and said, "Don't *do* that to me. I still haven't forgiven you for how long you stayed in the Canary Wharf office."

Ianto put his hands on her waist, awkward, feeling pressure inside his skull that wasn't due to the hideous noise. "Lisa?" he asked, barely breathing enough to make it qualify as a whisper.

Lisa stepped back and took his chin in her hand, eyes searching his face. "Yes, love. It's me. It's Lisa." When she got no reaction from him, she asked, "Do you know me?"

Ianto reached to touch the hand that was holding him, feeling his fingers shake with shock and hope. "You're here?" he asked. "How can you be here?"

"Owen!" Lisa called sharply, without breaking eye contact with Ianto. "Get back here. You aren't done fixing your patient."

Ianto yanked her into his arms hard enough to make her say, "Ooof," as the force of his embrace expelled air from her lungs. "You're alive. I don't care how. You're alive!"

"All right, all right. If I could break up this lovely embrace. Ianto, you seem to have woken up without all your wits."

Reluctantly, Lisa stepped back and Owen pulled out a penlight. "Right, let's see if you cracked your skull when you fell." He flashed the light into one eye, then the other.

Ianto blinked involuntarily, the burst of light covering his vision with an opaque veil of red. When it cleared...

...he was on the grate floor again, and Jack was shaking him. "Ianto. Ianto, wake up!"

Disoriented, Ianto closed his eyes to still his whirling thoughts. Then they focused again, abruptly. He sat up, looking around for Lisa. "Where is she?"

Jack sank back on his haunches as Ianto sat up. "Who?"

"Lisa. I saw her, she was just here, she was alive and herself and -- " His words seemed to cut off in his throat.

"No one's here," Jack said in the careful tone he used to talk murderers and government officials out of attacking him. The one that sounded drained of all sympathy -- until you looked in his eyes. Ianto avoided that. "No one's been here for a couple of hours except for you and me."

"I saw them," Ianto insisted. "Owen and Gwen. And Lisa. I saw them when the sound finally stopped and I could open my eyes."

"What sound?"

Ianto scrubbed out the hollows of his eyes with the heels of his hands. "You bloody well couldn't have missed hearing it. I half expected my eardrums to rupture."

Jack shook his head. "No sound, Ianto. At least, not one audible under normal circumstances."

"You mean, it was some sort of super- or sub-sonic noise?"

Jack rose and started heading for his office. Automatically, Ianto fell into step behind him. "A psychic dog whistle, maybe. Was there any sense to the sound? Words, patterns, anything?"

"No," Ianto said as they entered Jack's office. "Nothing. Just a steady ringing, like a knife on crystal." Like what he as hearing now, faint, sweet. "But it just kept getting louder. Oh, God, it's happening again." Ianto put his hands over his ears again, even though he knew how hopeless it was.

This time, when Jack pulled them down, he did it very gently. "Stay with me, Ianto. We'll figure this out."

"You're not the one that has Big Ben going off in your head." The last time the sound had grown too loud to bear, he'd blacked out, and woken up where Lisa was. He squinched his eyes shut as the pain rose from excruciating to unbearable. He felt his breath escaping his clenched teeth, but couldn't hear the hiss. "Oh, Christ, I'm going to..."

Fall.

When he came to again, he was lying on Owen's examining table, his tie off and his shirt open. Owen pressed a stethoscope to his chest. Giddy from the relief of pain, Ianto said, "All this technology, and you resort to something only a step above pressing your ear to my heart."

"Shut up, Ianto, I can't hear anything when you're nattering. Heart rate ungodly high, blood pressure through the roof. You haven't become a meth head when I wasn't looking, have you?"

"No," Lisa said firmly from his other side. Ianto realized her hand was in his, clutching tightly. "He complains of pain, of a sound too loud to bear, and then he collapses."

Owen gave her a sardonic look. "I know. Remember, I was there? In the meeting when he stops giving his report and starts groaning like he's about to have an orgasm?"

"I don't remember collapsing here," Ianto whispered. "I remember collapsing there, and waking here."

"Where?" Lisa asked, her face a study in determination.

He waved weakly to the main room. "There first, then up in Jack's office. Nobody else around. And I wake up and you're here." He tightened his hand on hers to underscore his meaning.

"And I'm not there. There."

Ianto swallowed. "You died."

"Oh, love," she said softly, an ache in her voice. She leaned in to kiss him, mercifully blocking the glare of the light overheard.

Jack leaned back. Ianto was on the floor of his office, lying across one raised knee. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty."

Ianto put a shaking hand to his forehead, feeling the cold sweat. "Why do I feel that this has happened before? Waking up in your arms?"

"Because it has. Didn't I mention the time you drowned?"

Ianto grinned faintly. "Kiss of life? So, are you only going to kiss me when I'm in no shape to appreciate it?"

That startled a laugh out of Jack. "That's... not what I expected you to say. If you're seeing Lisa when you're dreaming."

Ianto closed his eyes. "It's like I go somewhere. Somewhere that's right here, but... not. She looks the same as before. Not like she went through the hell of the Cybermen."

"Alternate world? Or maybe just the world your mind creates when left to its own devices," Jack said with no inflection in his tone, careful to not imply either was more likely than the other.

"I'm not hallucinating," Ianto insisted. He struggled to sit up all the way, bracing his back against Jack's desk. "If I was dreaming, why would Owen still be such a prat there? Why would he be there at all? By the way, over there he thinks I'm on the verge of a heart attack or something." It felt like it here, too, his heart pounding, thrashing in his chest like a dying thing.

Jack rested his chin on his hand. "It's possible that whatever noise you are hearing is being created on purpose. To disorient you, to make you think you're somewhere else."

"To what purpose?"

Jack shrugged. "If someone wanted to find a way to get into Torchwood, making us delusional isn't a bad strategy."

"But it's not affecting you, is it?"

"No, it's not. Handy, that."

"And no one there can hear it, either."

"Ianto... there isn't a there. There isn't a world where Lisa lived. At least, not one we can get to from here, with no other prompting but a loud noise."

"You don't know that. I refuse to believe you have all knowledge of time and space in your head. You can't prove a negative, you can't *prove* that I'm not somehow switching back and forth between two realities. Oh, hell, it's starting again. Can't you hit me on the head? It would be ever so much less painful." Ianto clenched his fists in his hair, grunting with pain.

Jack's hand went down his tightly corded arm soothingly. "Stay with me, Ianto. As long as you can. We need to figure out what's triggering this. Before it kills you."

Ianto groaned and slipped down to lie on the floor, curling around himself as though to block the pain. He couldn't hear anything but the noise, but he could feel Jack pressing again him, half support, half protection. The warmth of his body was the only comfort as Ianto spun down into hell.

This time, no one was around when he came to. He was down in the first level of cells. He got to his knees, then had to stop and catch his breath, dizzy from the effort.

Lisa opened the door and found him. She immediately went to help support him. "Please, please don't go off alone, Ianto. You're terrifying me." The face she turned up to his was drawn with worry and love.

Ianto leaned on her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his forehead on her hair. She felt real. She felt right. He sighed. "I can feel my blood pressure dropping. Holding you is better than petting a cat." With her help, he got to his feet. "We should find Jack, if someone hasn't already told him. When I flip back there, he has some ideas. He thinks that maybe someone is causing this deliberately."

Lisa froze, causing Ianto to stumble when he tried to take a step without her support. "Ianto... you don't remember, do you?" She took a deep breath that shuddered at the end. "Jack... Jack died."

Ianto blinked at her, feeling himself go cold. "No," he said calmly, although his hands had begun to shake. "Jack's not dead. He's not."

Lisa took his hand. Her flesh was warm to burning against his. "He was shot." She sighed, and her body slumped. "You don't remember. He was shot and he died."

And suddenly he did remember. He remembered convincing Lisa to leave Torchwood One in time to escape the Cybermen, although she always insisted she had had to pull him away. He remembered coming to Torchwood Three and settling in, with his analysis and reports.

And he remembered going out on a rainy night with Jack, on an investigation that abruptly turned into an ops, and not seeing that the alien they were tracking had managed to arm itself with a very human gun.

Jack had shoved him out of the way, barely. The bullet had passed through Jack's body, through his heart, and hit Ianto, finally stopping when it cracked a rib. And Jack had jerked in Ianto's hold, one violent shudder. And then life rained out of him and he hit the pavement and he was dead.

"I have to sit down again," Ianto said faintly. His ass hitting the floor was far more of a fall, but he didn't care. His brain was divided. He remembered Lisa dying. He remembered Jack dying.

He remembered two worlds, diverging from the day of the Battle of Canary Wharf.

"Ianto," Lisa said urgently. "We've got to figure out what is causing this. Or I'm going to lose you, and I couldn't bear that." Her voice was anguished, and Ianto raised his hand to brush her cheek. He touched his lips to hers, felt the beauty of her love spread over him. He loved her stubbornness and her tenderness.

"Lisa." Just her name. Just the chance to say her name while staring into her eyes.

And then the bloody sound started again. He had a few moments before it became painful again. "Listen to me, Lisa. Jack's theory is that someone is trying to break into Torchwood by playing some sort of sound that disorients us. For whatever reason, I'm the only one in either place that can hear it. We've got to figure out who's doing this and stop them. Then I'll stop collapsing on you and flipping back and forth between realities." And then the pain was cracking his skull open, and he only had time to say, "I love you," before he dropped.

When he woke back in the other reality, he stayed perfectly still for a few moments, gathering his strength. He was wrapped in Jack's arms, and while the hold was a bit too tight, it was enormously soothing to be held and rocked.

When he thought he could get to his feet without collapsing, he pulled out of Jack's arms and rolled to his hands and knees. Jack automatically reached out to support him. "Look who's back. I hate to say it, but I don't think you're up to that kind of calisthenics, Ianto."

Ianto managed to find breath to laugh while hauling himself to his feet *and* imagining being naked in that position with him. "Bugger off, Jack."

Jack cocked an eyebrow at him. "That's pretty much what I meant."

Ianto stumbled for the stairs. Predictably, Jack was right on his heels. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Ianto gripped the handrail all the way down, dragging Jack on a leash of worry after him. "If you're right, and someone is beaming in some signal to crack us, shouldn't we go out there and stop him?" Ianto reached the bottom of the stairs and paused to catch his breath. "Why haven't you done that already?" he asked curiously. "Since the sound isn't affecting you, which I think is grossly unfair."

Jack gripped his elbow, stepping around to face him. "I'm not leaving you."

Ianto grinned. Honestly, despite having memories of both Jack and Lisa dying in different worlds, and the fact that his brain was splitting every few moments, and that he felt about as weak as American beer, he was happy. It must be the delirium. "Good. Come on, then."

He lurched toward the door to the tourist reception office, Jack supporting him and muttering about subordinates who didn't know their place. Ianto thought about suggesting a few places and/or positions, but he was running out of air even though the sound — and thus the pain — had not yet started again.

He stumbled over the last step up, and ended up dragging Jack with him as they sprawled to the floor. "Go on," Ianto wheezed. "Go out there. Kick some ass. For me. Please."

Jack opened his mouth, and Ianto cut him off. "Yeah, yeah, I know. You're not leaving me. The sooner you go out and kill that son of a bitch, the sooner I can stop curling into a fetal position on the floor." Jack hesitated, and Ianto said firmly, "I'll be fine. At the very least, I'll manage. Go." He failed to mention that the sound was starting again, chiming sweet, sure to turn deadly.

Jack leaned down and kissed him again, and Ianto was rather delighted to be aware enough to enjoy it this time. Jack might be able to pass some of his life force through his kiss — and Ianto thanked whatever ironic gods of the universe who had come up with that method — but this was a call for a reason to live. Jack's tongue, sliding over his sensitive palate and the insides of his cheeks; Jack's teeth, nibbling on his lips and the corners of his mouth... were promises Ianto wanted to follow up on. Very badly. Preferably while naked.

Jack finally lowered his forehead to Ianto's. "If you're dead when I get back, I'll kill you."

Ianto smiled up, dazed. "Just kiss me again. That'll raise the dead. And it also should bring me back to life."

Jack laughed and kissed him one more time, breathing into his mouth. Ianto wanted to have his strength back so he could kiss him back. Give back.

Just as the sound grew painful again, Jack got to his feet. He had picked up a gun somewhere along the way, or had it all along, and held it point-down against his leg, out of casual view. He glanced back once more at Ianto, and then slipped out into the Centre.

Ianto was free now to give himself up to the pain. He thought maybe not resisting it would render it less painful. Instead, it seemed worse, dragging him in nauseating spirals down into the dark. Down and down...

And he woke. On the floor of the reception office. Alone.

~Which world?~ he wondered. Was Jack out there? Had he convinced Lisa to go out and search out whoever was doing this to him? He never remembered passing out when he woke to Lisa, and time always seemed to pass that he didn't remember.

Groaning, he hauled himself up. Behind the tourist counter was a gun. He grabbed for it, and then swayed over to door to the outside.

He had to know what was going on out there.

At this time of night, the Millennium Centre was deserted. The wind blowing in from the harbor was cuttingly cold, and it mixed with the drizzle that threatened to become a proper rainfall. Ignoring the cold and wet — he was Welsh, for God's sake — he began to quarter the area. The range couldn't be very large, or even at this time of night too many people would be affected.

It occurred to him that if anyone from his team — either team — were out here, they might shoot him unknowing. Before he could think what was the wisest course, the sound started again. Accompanying it this time was a faint glow. Unlike the sound, the glow had a definite source, down a set of concrete steps leading to the harbor.

"What do you want to bet the light becomes blinding, too?" Ianto muttered to himself. Still shaky, he headed for the steps, hoping to get down them and shoot whoever was causing this before the pain broke him again.

"Ianto!" It was a sharp hiss in Jack's voice, and Ianto sagged against the railing, waiting for Jack to catch up with him. "What the hell are you doing out here?"

"Tracking the asshole, sir." Ianto pointed down the stairs and said in an undertone, "There's light."

"Light I can't see, and sound I can't hear. Great." Jack put his hands on Ianto's shoulders, his gun hanging heavy down Ianto's back. "Stay. Put," he said, enunciating each word clearly as though talking to a child or a dog. "I'll take care of it."

"Right, sir," Ianto whispered back. He waited until Jack was most of the way down the steps, walking into what must have been pitch-black for him, before putting one foot down on the next step.

A hand grabbed him and whirled him around. "Get back inside, Ianto," Lisa said between her teeth. "That's a bloody order."

"Can you see the light?" Ianto asked, barely waiting for Lisa's shake of the head. "Then you need me to help track. Also, don't shoot Jack. He's down there, too. I know, I know, he's dead. The other one is here. Don't make me explain; it makes my head hurt worse."

Lisa simply shook her head and glared. She pushed Ianto behind her and started down the stairs.

When they reached the bottom, Ianto could see Jack clearly. So could the man holding a glowing object that looked nothing so much like an alien music box. In his other hand, he held a gun.

No, Ianto thought. Not again.

The man took aim at Jack, who was still carefully trying to feel his way about. Ianto pushed past Lisa and shoved Jack out of the way of the gun's path. His unsteady legs carried them both to the ground, and the bullet smashed into the concrete where Jack's head had been, showering them with chips.

"Bloody hell," muttered the man with the music box, and took aim again.

Everything seemed to move so slowly. Even with his shaky limbs, Ianto managed to gain his feet before Jack did. It was a human holding the device that had been making his life hell. Someone who looked more suited to starting brawls in pubs. Ianto pulled himself upright and faced him. He didn't have a chance to raise the gun he held, didn't have a chance to do anything but lift his chin and face him down.

Lisa managed to get her torch on, and light bloomed in the man-made crevice that wasn't from alien technology. Jack rose to his feet; Ianto could feel him at his back. Then everything happened in a confused welter of noise. Ianto swore that he heard the gun shot before Jack managed to grab him in a tight embrace and spin around.

Just like before, just like his memory of another world, Jack convulsed in pain against Ianto's body. His blue eyes went wide and blank with it, and the only warmth Ianto could feel in the cold night was Jack's blood pouring down his front.

Ianto screamed, hearing his voice rip hoarse with it. Jack sank to the ground and Ianto didn't have the strength to hold him up, and slumped to the ground with him. As Jack had done for him before, Ianto cradled him in his arms, rocking in incomprehensible pain.

"Ianto!" Lisa said sharply. Her call drew the shooter's attention to her. He swung the gun to focus on her. But Lisa was prepared. Her gun was up and as focused as her dark eyes. Before he could shoot again. Lisa fired. Her bullet took him in his upper chest, and he spun around and fell.

Ianto ignored the man groaning on the ground. All his attention was on the one in his arms. He couldn't keep his hand still enough to try to staunch the blood from Jack's chest. Not that it would help, but Ianto couldn't help trying. His hands were slick with blood as he bent his face over Jack, weeping, pressing his lips to Jack's, trying to trade back some of the life Jack had passed to him.

Impossibly, Jack stirred. His breath tore in and out. "Ow," Jack said, attempting a prosaic tone. "Ianto, what the hell are you doing?"

Ianto pressed his forehead to Jack's, gasping for air. "I couldn't watch you die," Ianto whispered. "I saw it once. I couldn't bear to see it again. How... how are you...?"

Jack reached gingerly for the hole in his chest. "I'm not that easy to kill," he tried to joke, with little to no breath.

Lisa knelt next to them. "Jack?" she breathed. "You're alive?"

"Different Jack," Ianto wheezed. "Other Jack, Lisa, Lisa, other Jack."

Jack hauled himself into a sitting position, grunting from the pain in his shoulder. "Pleasure to meet you, Lisa, under much better circumstances."

Lisa shook her head in bemusement. "I'll never get used to this job."

A movement out of the corner of Ianto's eye drew his attention. The man with the alien tech managed to claw his way up, and was raising his gun. Ianto's focus sharpened, and he lifted the gun he held. Before anyone else could react, Ianto shot him between the eyes.

Lisa tore her eyes from Jack to watch the shooter fall. Ianto lowered his arm, feeling... relieved. This time, the man lay on the cobbles, the alien music box near his hand, and he wasn't going to rise again to threaten anyone Ianto loved.

The sound was still building, and the light was beginning to hurt Ianto's eyes. He crawled to the music box and reached to shut the lid, then paused. "Lisa, I don't know what's going to happen next. I think this was creating a weak spot between worlds, between my worlds. I think... you'll probably get your Ianto back."

"You *are* my Ianto," she protested.

He shook his head. "But you're not my Lisa. But I am so..." his voice broke, and then he firmed it with a will, "so grateful to see you one more time. I love you."

She knelt next to him, brushed her hand over his hair, and kissed him. "I love you as well, Ianto. Always."

And she reached out and flipped the lid shut. The light and sound immediately — blissfully — cut off.

So did she.

Ianto sat back on his heels, hands dangling between his thighs. Jack pulled some sort of alien lit globe out of his pocket and checked the body. Then he put his hand on Ianto's shoulder. "You all right?"

Ianto took a deep breath. "Yeah," he said in dawning wonder. "I am. I got to say goodbye to her, when she truly was herself. And somehow, it's a comfort to think that there's some other world where Lisa and Ianto are happy, and together."

Jack snorted. "I meant your head."

Ianto laughed, shaky but real. "I could do with a lie down, but otherwise I'm fine. How's your shoulder?"

Jack shrugged. "It'll heal. I'll live. And if I ever catch you doing something so foolish as to get between me and any sort of alien or human or mechanical thing trying to kill me, I'll make you regret it."

"Yeah?" Ianto asked with interest.

Jack laughed, and brushed his lips over Ianto's cheek. Then he grew serious. "You said you'd watch me die, and gladly."

Ianto took a deep breath. He still felt the sick fury at Jack's refusal to even consider helping Lisa. He also knew how it felt to be protected, worried over, cherished by him. Neither memory, neither impulse overrode the other. He had to live with both of them. "I did watch you die, in the other world. I like this one better with you in it."

Chuckling, Jack helped haul Ianto to his feet. "Do you think you can walk?"

"I don't know." Then Ianto grinned. "Kiss me, and let's find out."

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> VII: The Chariot.
> 
> Divinitory meanings:
> 
> "The Chariot is one of the most complex cards to define. On its most basic level, it implies war, a struggle, and an eventual, hard-won victory. Either over enemies, obstacles, nature, the beasts inside you, or to just get what you want. But there is a great deal more to it. The charioteer wears emblems of the sun, yet the sign behind this card is Cancer, the moon. The chariot is all about motion, and yet it is often shown as stationary." -- Aeclectic Tarot
> 
> "The Chariot is all about the concentration, willpower and determination it takes to control those (proverbial) horses and keep them steadily on the path that leads to your goals. The card stands for resolving conflict within yourself and finding the necessary balance to accomplish your ambitions." -- Tarotpedia


End file.
